Jim Moore strains. . .tugs.. .grunts. . .but to no avail as his team failed to place in Thursday’s
Homecoming tug of war.
Photos by Steve Crowell
Geraldine Ferraro
comes to lunch
See Page 3A
Oregon daily
emerald
Friday, October 26, 1984
Eugene, Oregon
Volume 86, Number 41
Coalition charges EPA with cover-up
By Paul Ertelt
Of the Emerald
The federal Environmental Protection Agency has
covered up evidence of the effects of dioxin on human
health and has suppressed its studies of toxic her
bicides used in the Oregon coast range, charge plain
tiffs in a lawsuit filed Thursday in the U.S. District
Court in Eugene.
The suit seeks, under the Freedom of Information
Act (FOIA), the release of all documents relating to the
EPA's studies of the impact of herbicides on human
health in the Siuslaw National Forest.
The lawsuit names William Ruckelshaus, ad
ministrator of the EPA, as defendant. Plaintiffs in the
case are Carol Van Strum, Paul Merrell and the Nor
thwest Coalition for Alternatives to Pesticides (NCAP).
Merrell, a student at the University's law school,
and Van Strum are residents of the Five Rivers area of
the Alsea River drainage in western Oregon.
Merrell and Van Strum have been active in the bat
tle to ban dangerous herbicides since the 1970s. Van
Strum is the author of “A Bitter Fog: Herbicides and
Human Rights," a book which recounts her experience
with herbicide spraying near her home. Merrell is a
Vietnam veteran who was exposed to agent orange, a
defoliant containing dioxins.
In a news conference Thursday. Merrell charged
that the EPA is withholding information that refutes its
claim that samples taken in the region show no traces of
dioxin. The dioxin group of chemicals consists of about
75 similar substances that have been linked to genetic
defects and cancer.
"We’ve got to get this straightened out,” Merrell
said. “We may have a public health emergency on the
Oregon coast range.”
The lawsuit outlines what Merrell considers an at
tempt by the EPA to cover up its knowledge of amounts
of dioxins in the environment and their effects on
human health.
Paul Merrell
Between 1975 and 1977, an Alsea-area woman suf
fered four spontaneous abortions. Her doctor, suspec
ting a link to herbicide spraying, contacted the EPA,
which took blood, animal and soil samples from the
woman’s yard.
Dr. Michael Watson, who conducted the tests for
the EPA, told the woman there were no traces of dioxin
in the samples. But later Watson told a biologist that
their were traces of dioxin in the soil, the lawsuit
charges.
The EPA conducted further tests in 1978 when
eight Alsea-area women reported spontaneous abor
tions. That study was expanded to study rates of spon
taneous abortions in a 1,600 square mile area. Results of
the study showed 130 spontaneous abortions per 1,000
compared to 46 per 1,000 in a control group.
Based on this data, the EPA issued an emergency
suspension order for 2,4,5-T and 2,4,5-TP (Silvex), two
herbicides. But the EPA allowed the Dow Chemical Co.
to edit out references to the Alsea studies from a report
on dioxin in the United States.
The lawsuit includes transcripts of telephone
negotiations between the EPA and the chemical com
pany, which Merrell said he received through an FOIA
request.
“EPA officials suppressed the evidence Vietnam
veterans needed to win their class-action lawsuit over
agent orange,” he said.
Representatives of neither EPA nor Dow Chemical
Co. were available for comment.
In July, 1983, Michael Axline, Merrell’s attorney
and a University law professor, obtained part of the
results of the Alsea study from a University of Nebraska
professor. These results show high levels of dioxin in
Western Oregon water, wildlife and tissue samples, in
cluding a tissue sample of a baby born without a brain
in Lincoln County, Merrell said. • c
But when confronted by Merrell, the EPA claimed
there had been a mixup in samples and the samples
with the highest levels of dioxin came from a Dow plant
in Michigan.
Merrell then requested that the EPA provide all in
formation on its studies of the Alsea area, whether com
pleted or not. That request was denied, so Merrell and
Van Strum decided to file the lawsuit.
“We are very disturbed by this conduct,” said Nor
ma Grier, director of NCAP. “We think it undermines
the integrity of EPA’s entire regulatory process.”
Kight-to-liie groups battle proposed clinic
By Cynthia Whitfield
Of the Emerald
A proposed outpatient
surgery clinic has Lane County
medical organizations, right-to
life groups, religious organiza
tions and area physicians
clashing over the desirability of
the project.
The conflict arose when the
physicians brought their re
quest for the new clinic to a
hearing before the Western
Oregon Health Systems
Agency.
An estimated 100 to 200 peo
ple showed up at the Oct. 10
hearing to oppose the opening
of the proposed Eugene Day
Surgery, to be located near
Sacred Heart Hospital. The op
fill
ponents of the facility fear most
surgeries performed at the
clinic will be abortions.
Finally, at a standing-room
only meeting Thursday night,
WOHSA voted against the pro
posed clinic. WOHSA is only
link in the chain of groups that
decide whether or not to ap
prove construction of the
facility.
“They say abortion is only
one of the procedures they in
tend to perform, but the
language in their application
does not mention these others.
Verbally they speak of full
scope surgery but the applica
tion only speaks of
gynecological surgery,” said
the Rev. Kurt Mach, spokesper
son at the meeting for various
right-to-life and religious
groups.
“Of the 10 doctors, eight are
gynecologists. It doesn’t seem
reasonable to me (that)
gynecologists would be perfor
ming ear, nose, and throat
operations. The majority of
them are practicing abor
tionists,” said Mach, pastor of
Community Christian
Fellowship.
However, Dr. Paul Kaplan, a
prospective Eugene Day
Surgery physician, says the
physicians involved in the
group consist of eight physi
cians, seven OB-gynecologists,
and one general surgeon.
“Most of them do some
pregnancy termination, but
that's not the main thing,” he
said.
Kapian says eye surgery, knee
surgery and plastic surgery are
all procedures the clinic hopes
to do as more physicians join
the staff.
In the meantime WOHSA’s
function is to review the physi
cians’ application and deter
mine whether it conforms to its
review criteria. WOHSA is a
non-profit organization
developed through an act of
Congress in the 1970s to main
tain health services at the
lowest costs and highest quality
levels, said Karl Eysenbach,
WOHSA planning and review
manager.
On Nov. 9, the agency’s board
of directors will vote on
WOHSA’s decision and make a
recommendation to the State
Health Planning and Develop
ment Agency, which will
ultimately decide the fate of the
clinic.
“We are recommending
against this clinic,” Eysenbach
said. “Eugene already has a
high rate of outpatient
surgery... 35 percent of the
simple surgery performed in
Lane County is outpatient
surgery; 40 percent is the
highest that could realistically
be performed.”
Eysenbach also said Eugene
Day Surgery will cost more than
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